MISE-EN-SCENE “placing of objects on screen”

MISE-EN-SCENE“placing of objects on screen”

Mise-en-scene (French for “placing on screen”)elements placed before the camera to be photographed5 Key Aspects: - Décor (Set Design) - Lighting - Space - Costumes - Acting

The way a filmmaker arranges elements before the camera (sets and props)SOME CRITICS FEEL THIS INCLUDES using set design to establish character DÉCOR/Visual Design

Importance of set design

Rear Projection Usually used to combine foreground action, often actors in conversation, with a background often shot earlier, on location.

COLOR Can be used to illustrate symbolic meaning (e.g. The Sixth Sense) As part of the narrative organization (e.g. Malcolm X) Psychological mood and tone (to augment and intensify the emotion)

BLACK & WHITE More of a focus on brightness levels Film noir a specific style of film that creates a darker, moodier look

LIGHTING Three-point lighting-The standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. In order to model an actor's face (or another object) with a sense of depth, light from three directions is used, as in the diagram to the right.

HIGH-KEY LIGHTING-A lighting scheme in which the fill light is raised to almost the same level as the key light. This produces images that are usually very bright and that feature few shadows on the principal subjects.

LOW-KEY LIGHTING-A lighting scheme that employs very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows that obscure parts of the principal subjects.

Realistic lighting design Light on screen is cast by one or more specific sources Practical light-actual light on the set that works for the exposure of the film

Pictorial lighting design Stresses purely pictorial or visual values that may be unrelated to strict concerns about source simulations Many films use both

Space-The representation of space affects the reading of a film.

DEEP SPACE-A film utilizes deep space when significant elements of an image are positioned both near to and distant from the camera.

FRONTALITY-Frontality refers to the staging of elements, often human figures, so that they face the camera square-on.

MATTE SHOT-A process shot in which two photographic images (usually background and foreground) are combined into a single image using an optical printer. Matte shots can be used to add elements to a realistic scene or to create fantasy spaces.

OFFSCREEN SPACE-Space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame.

SHALLOW SPACE-The opposite of deep space, in shallow space the image is staged with very little depth. The figures in the image occupy the same or closely positioned planes.

Composition and Space

Costume-Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Costume in narrative cinema is used to signify character, or advertise particular fashions, or to make clear distinctions between characters.

Acting-Performance in the film. There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the cinema. • Technical acting-focused on a more traditional dramatic mode similar to the theatre focused more on body language and facial expression • Method-focused more on inner emotions and personal experience (a more modern style) • Typage-refers to the selection of actors on the basis that their facial or bodily features readily convey the truth of the character the actor plays

Categories of Film Performers Stars (usually lead actors/actresses who receive top billing) Supporting Actors (secondary and supporting roles in films) Extras (performers who appear incidentally or in the background) The Star Persona – collective screen personality that emerges over a star’s career

Personality Stars vs. Character Stars Personality Stars – stars whose personality changes only slightly from film to film (Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, John Wayne, Bette Davis) Character Stars – plays a greater range of roles and is known for being “lost” in the character (Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep)

Performer as an Element of Mis-en-scene 4 different ways to accomplish this: Emphasizing unique body language: - John Wayne’s walk in The Shootist (1976) - Charlie Chaplin Regulating Intensity of Emotion: - how does the film regulate expression? - Chaplin’s face at the end of City Lights

Performer as an Element of Mis-en-scene Maximalist Performance Style: - going to the opposite extreme (not naturalistic or plausible, but over the top) - either very emotional or very unemotional: Al Pacino vs. Clint Eastwood Typage: - performers are visually stylized, often to the extreme

Performer as an Element of Mis-en-scene Visual Mediation of Performance: - connecting a performer to additional visual elements within the film - Citizen Kane

Forced perspective A deliberate distortion imposed by artists upon the linear perspective cues within a model or painting

Computer Generated Images Used to create effects by erasing visual information from the frame (Gary Sinise’s legs in Forrest Gump) Building entire images inside the computer and then integrating these with live-action photography (The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, etc.)

MISE-EN-SCENE “placing of objects on screen”